When The Night Has Come
by dancingpines
Summary: Castle and Beckett go stargazing. A season 3 AU one-shot, prompted on castlefanficprompts.


The windows are down and the car is moving. Destination: The Hamptons. This is the first time Beckett has accompanied Castle to his Hamptons house since declining his invitation almost a year ago.  
Castle finally whittled her down into taking some well deserved time off from the precinct. It's 7 p.m. and they're just about to pull into his place to start their adventure for the evening.  
Beckett's always been fond of the night sky. So she made a deal with Castle. She'll go to the Hamptons with him, if and only if, he'll let her take him stargazing.

Pulling into the drive of Castle's house, Beckett is full of wonderment. She imagined it'd be big, but really, this big? She had no idea.

"So, you rich or something?"

He laughs.

"I'm not James Patterson rich, but I do okay."

The night sky can be faintly seen from Castle's back yard, but it's not near bright enough for what Beckett has in mind.

"Castle, is there anywhere with less lighting we can go?"

"I thought we'd go down to the beach. It's pretty dark down there unless you've got a flashlight."

"That's perfect!"

After collecting some supplies, jackets, snacks, a blanket, a flashlight - they walk down the path from Castle's back yard until they meet the sand of the beach. The sky is bright and beautiful.

"This is the perfect spot, Castle."

They lay their blanket down on the sand and lay down. Castle can tell Kate is excited. He may not can see her face, but he can hear it in her voice already.

They start off trading stories about seeing shooting stars, what they had wished for, what came true and what did not. Then Kate starts pointing out things for Castle to see.

"Look, Castle! There's Sirius! And over there is the Big Dipper!"

Castle is relishing in Kate's joy. The sound of her excited voice puts him at ease. So much at ease in fact, that soon, Kate hears snoring. Looking down at Castle she rolls her eyes and huffs. All she wanted to do was stargaze with the man she loves...wait...the man she likes (yeah, that's it),  
and he has to go and fall asleep on her.

"Ugh, Castle, wake up!" She nudges him and he opens his eyes.

"What's that? Sorry Beckett, didn't meant to fall asleep."

"Yeah? Well ya did. Thanks a lot ya big snoozer."

Castle grumbles some as he wakes up. He can hear in Kate's voice how disappointed she is.

"I'm sorry, Beckett, but I honestly couldn't help it. Between your voice and the sound of the waves, what else would a man do besides fall asleep?"

"What do you mean? I was just talking, Castle."

"Yeah," he replies, "But you were so happy. Your voice was so soothing. I couldn't help but fall asleep."

Did he really just admit to falling asleep to the sound of Kate Beckett's voice? Must be the moonlight fudging up his brain. Or maybe he's still asleep.

He can feel Kate looking at him so he gets out his flashlight and shines it between them. Her eyes are wide and searching his.

"Castle..."

"Yeah, Beckett?"

"Don't. Move. There's a crab on your shoulder."

Castle, of course, shines the light towards his shoulder and lets out a squeal, shimmying and shaking and falling over onto Beckett."

Now she's laughing. She's laughing very hard because Castle just squealed like a 3 year old child in front of her, because of a crab. He really wasn't wanting to leave that impression. He now notices that he's on top of a laughing Beckett. Nose to nose in fact.  
She finally stops laughing and realizes the situation. They both seem to forget how to breathe.

"Kate..."

"Yeah, Castle?"

"I'm going to kiss you now so don't punch me."

Their lips meet. Instead of punching him, she grabs the back of his neck and holds him to her. Their lips dance together, tongues sneaking out to taste each other. They pull back breathless, staring at each other in the dim light of the flashlight.

"Can we try stargazing again?"

"Sure, Castle, but this time you better not fall asleep."

"As long as you hold my hand, Beckett, I _promise_ to stay awake."

They go back to being side by side again, their hands folded together on the blanket between them.

"Is that the Little Dipper, Beckett?"

"That's _Orion_ , Castle!"

 _Fin_


End file.
